@ReWrite2012 for the Weekend

An amazing conference of and for writers has come to San Diego and I feel like a little fish out of water. In a good way. I have been able to interact with an amazing group of people and authors that I would have never in a million years been able to encounter. You can follow my star-struckness on Twitter throughout the weekend. More on it all later. I'll be back soon. 

Hello Fruit, You are My Favorite

Ever since going sugar free (which you might only know because of Twitter or #Instagram), I've had to find other ways to suffice my sweets cravings. Now, I'm not one of those healthy girls that exclaims, "Eating a piece of fruit is just as, if not more, satisfying than a bar of chocolate!" Heck no. Chocolate is chocolate friends. There is no replacement. Period.

But I've found ways to not crave it, as much. And that's getting creative with fruit. Apples/pepper jack cheese and pears/feta cheese on pretty much anything is my current obsession. So today, me and some girl friends went on an adventure trying to find this stand in Fallbrook, CA (off the 15 South and Hwy 76). Amazing fruit and good $! If you're local or visiting Southern Cali, try it! 

Oh! And Happy Fourth of July! 

Are you sugar free? 

**Rest assured, this will not turn into a sugar-free blog. I'm not that good :)

An Instagrammed Retreat

On our way home today! I can't wait to see Ty. It's crazy how much I miss him. This weekend was filled with sweet rest, long talks with old and new friends, time with my beautiful mother, sunbathing and worship. Pure, unadulterated worship. So many posts are blooming from this weekend. Hold on to your hats! ~

Today I am in Santa Monica

Today I'm on a mini-vacay/work trip to Santa Monica with some friends. Not sure what we're gonna do yet. Kind of a casual trip. Definitely gonna find me some Gelato for my cheat from #sugarfree plan. It should be fun :) 

Then off to visit a prayer group on UCLA campus. What are you doing today?

Love,
JM

Our Mountain Vacation in Photos

Vacay photos as promised :) It was once said, "A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in." And that's pretty much what we did. No agenda, no places to be. We ate pie for breakfast and marshmallows at midnight. We slept in til 11 and went to be at 8:30. It was amazing. 

Our fearless 6 hour driver.

I scoured for yellow boots, but only black ones. They were good though.

My attire for the week: Sweatshirts and ball caps. #heaven

1) We had a marshmallow eating contest. 11. That's all I can say.

2) This was the river our tent was next too. No joke. It was heaven!

3) Just me and my no-heat curls.

4) Tom's Place milk-shake. Yummmmmy. Faaaaatening. 

For all you haters out there, [you know who you are] I caught a fish

AND I cleaned it. Yes, yes I did. But never again. 

The BEST pie place ever. The one pictured is cherry. But I had coconut. !!

1) We read. Alot. I got through this whole book. And I recommend it.

2) And Ty watched Harry Potter. Of course. 

This picture was a toil in my mind to share, but I had to because my legs

got SOO disgustingly dry that I would put lotion on and it wouldn't rub. It just

disappeared in the abyss of my leg. And that's never happened to me before.
So it was worth sharing. Don't judge. 

Read 'em and weep. It's gross I know, but I was stunned when I saw that

the hard core fishermen use these guys. Bleh.

Friends. Old and new friends. 

[Not that you're old Jen, just that I've known...never mind.] 

Overall, our trip was so fun. Relaxing, restful, exciting, and fresh. And I'm glad to be home. In my own bed with clean clothes :) 

Did you like the guest posts by Amber and Jo?? If you missed them they're right here:

-Marriage Myths Intro

-Marriage Myth #1, #2, #3, #4

-A New Song

Happy Taco Tuesday! Eat one for me.

Love,

Happy Smelly Ending.

Question: What kind of animal tracks are these? Look closely.

These are skunk tracks.

How do I know, you ask...well I wouldn't normally know that. Those look like deer or rabbit or squirrel tracks for all I know. But there is one key to this puzzle I have not yet revealed.

The key is that at 4:00AM Monday morning my dear friend Cara woke me up from her sofa bed and alerted me that there was a strong smell in the house and it might be a gas leak so we needed to leave asap. As I sat up and when my senses rushed back to me, I was greeted with the strongest, most piercing nasty scent I have ever smelt.

The next morning, her landlord called and after he checked everything out, his conclusion was that a skunk sprayed somewhere in the ventilation system and steamed the entire house. Pee-you. 

So after she googled some "how-to's" about getting rid of skunk smell, we went back to gather our things and did laundry for the remainder of our day. 

It wasn't all a loss however. She lives 10 minutes from Lake Michigan so in between loads we took Ty to see the gorgeous frozen over lake and walked through downtown Holland. This isn't a Cali-type lake. It is one of the Great Lakes. So it's pretty much an ocean with no waves and no sharks. Ty's kinda body of water eh? :) 

I found a little creative shop that I fell in love with [and will soon be doing a Friday Feature on] and Cara took me to her friend's Art Bar. It is exactly what it sounds like. A building full of stuff to make art: from a piano full of beads and jewelry to a wall of scrapbook paper and the like. It was heaven. 

We ended our day with showers, folding laundry and playing Bananagrams. Oh how I love friends and Bananagrams. 

Home now and finding out there's yet another level of exhaustion. 

Be back full force this week.

Love,

So We Took a Week Off

And we traveled by a borrowed Honda Civic up the golden coast of the beautiful Cali-for-nia. It was a last minute trip and so we [by "we" I mean Ty] decided that we should just go. Just drive and find those road signs with the tent camping logo on them and stop there. One night here, one night there, all the way up to San Fran.

So we packed our little car and started driving at 12PM on Monday afternoon. We got to our destination at 10:30PM and it happened to be a Comfort Inn....in Ventura. Long story. So we just stayed within Ventura county. But by day 2 we found our little nook off the highway [Faria State Beach] and it was a keeper. We stayed there the rest of the week. And we got to bring our Taylor girl. Here's some pictures to sum up:















The first night Tay got her own bed...lucky duck.

















Great City!


















The overcast was making us crazy.



















This is all she did all week. Chasing and barking at these squirrels. Then this glorious moment came, finally a face off.













Who says camp food can't be good? [Ty cooked all week!]



















Our little home :)

I have always loved camping with my family, but never thought it would have been something I'd do with just myself and my hubs. But it was so much fun! Like...so much fun! And way more chill than I thought. We slept alot. Ate a lot. Read a lot. And laughed a lot!

Needless to say I had a crazy good time with my little camping family. Celebrating 365 days of marital bliss.

Love you babe, and you still owe me shampoo.

~JM